Shattered Sunlight
by Scribe34
Summary: Rose Weasley goes home for Easter break her seventh year. One of her best friends pays her a visit.


Scene: Rose and Scorpius, Year Seven, Easter Break

"It's good to have you home," said Hermione affectionately to her daughter and son, as they strolled from their apparition spot to the small village of Dawlish, where they lived in their little house.

"It's good to be home," said Hugo happily. Hugo was often happy, Rose thought; he was barely fifteen, after all. But she had to smile at her own thoughts: she hadn't been happy in her fourth or fifth year. That was the year of the Tournament, after all, and she still remembered the chill of hearing Albus's name drawn from the Goblet of Fire.

Shaking away her dark thoughts, Rose brightened up as they walked into the little kitchen. Hermione had never been overtly fond of pink, and it clashed violently with Ron's, Rose's, and Hugo's hair, but the kitchen had been painted pink, for all that. Neither Rose nor Hugo knew why, but Rose assumed that it was because of some inside joke her parents had. She had never asked, not really wanting to know the details.

"Your father's on a raid with Teddy Lupin, that's why he's not home just yet," explained Hermione. "I made spaghetti, though- I am not a terribly good cook, but I can make spaghetti." She flushed a little bit.

"It smells good, Mom," said Hugo reassuringly. He was so nice, thought Rose, who knew full well that her mother could not cook worth beans, but then, Hugo was always nice. In many ways, they were like their parents. Hermione and Hugo were the nice, ever so slightly more tactful ones; Ron and Rose were blunt, even forceful in their honesty.

She ate spaghetti and talked to her mother, but she was feeling a little downcast. Scorpius was recently single again; she had been single for a year and a half now- not that she was going to think about Caden. He was a scumbag. She would. Not. Think. About. Caden. But just because Scorpius had only just broken up with Brianna Toberley was no reason to think that he would come running after her. He was a free human being. She couldn't force him to do anything.

So why, for the past sixth months, had forcing a Love Potion down his gullet sounded like an increasingly good idea to her inner psychotic monster?

"Thanks for dinner, Mum," said Hugo.

"Thanks for dinner," Rose echoed, called to the present. She forced down the last mouthful of spaghetti and took her plate to the sink, then started washing the dishes. Hugo sauntered over to the television.

"I can do that by magic, you know," said Hermione, behind her, "but I appreciate it if you are in fact studying for Muggle Studies."

"I need something to do," said Rose absently. Something to do with her hands, while she occupied herself with not thinking about Caden or Scorpius or any of the mistakes she had made in the past.

"You have your Apparition license, you can go over to Teddy and Victoire's and keep her and Isabelle company until Teddy comes home," said Hermione.

"No," said Rose. "Not tonight. Victoire has the right to be happy without my company to bore her."

A hand reached out and gripped Rose's. It astonished Rose, to realize that she was taller than her mother, having inherited Ron's height and thin form, but that their hands were the same size, slender and lovely. Hermione had a scar on her left hand, probably left over from pre-Battle of Hogwarts fieldwork.

"Do you want to talk about it?" said Hermione quietly. "Whatever's troubling you?"

"No," said Rose. "I'm trying not to think about it. It's not good for me to... brood, I suppose."

"It does not do to dwell on dreams, and forget to live." Hermione sighed. "Said by a much cleverer wizard than you or I, Rose, and there are few cleverer than you or I."

Rose was startled. Hermione didn't boast of her own intelligence often.

"Mom-" she began, involuntarily, then sighed. "Well, no. I thought I could talk about it for a second there, but I can't." She scrubbed harder at the dishes.

She heard her mother sigh.

"You don't have to tell me, Rose. I remember my days in Gryffindor dormitories. Why anybody would want to talk to the other girls about their private affairs is beyond me, and I know that your roommates have been particularly-"

"Bitchy," said Rose flatly, as her mother paused.

"Well, yes, but I was looking for a nicer word," said Hermione. "I understand wanting to keep it all to yourself. After I got married, I didn't have to. In fact, after the Battle of Hogwarts, I didn't have to. I had Ronald to listen to me."

Rose thought about her parents, and how they loved each other, still just as intensely and passionately as they had loved each other since the Battle of Hogwarts- since before the Battle of Hogwarts. Since Dad had dated Lavender Finnegan, or Lavender Brown that was. She shuddered. You knew that everyone's parents had dated when they were all at Hogwarts; only two or three thousand wizards in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland and everyone had dated each other, because that was what they did.

And abruptly she felt the tears rolling down her cheeks, as she thought about her parents and how they loved each other and how she felt- she didn't know what- for Scorpius. She wouldn't call it love exactly. It was just- emotion. She had shared so much emotion with him, so many memories, so much life- and he had wanted her, once, and now that she realized that she wanted him as her best friend in the world for the rest of her life, he had moved on.

Her mother left her alone after that, and after she was done with the dishes Rose went to bed early, listening to Hugo watching the Muggle TV and wishing that she didn't have to go to the Burrow for Easter dinner in two days. She would have to see everyone, and all of the younger cousins would try and talk to her about Scorpius, and she wouldn't want to, and Matthias Hale would visit, because Marius lived at the Burrow these days, and like he always had, he would know exactly what was wrong.

It was wrong. It was all wrong.

But she woke up in the morning with an eagerness to prove to her mother that the previous evening had just been a slight melancholy. She wasn't going to let something as stupid as _boy problems_ prevent her from having a lovely Easter.

She got dressed, putting on jeans and a tee shirt, such as she always wore when she was home, and went downstairs, hearing her father's voice, husky and trembling with its tiredness. She went in and looked at her father, saw his greying red hair, saw the five o'clock shadow, and realized that he was old. He was eating scrambled eggs and drinking coffee.

"I've been up since dawn," he remarked cheerfully, as Rose came to sit next to him, laying her head on his shoulder. "How are you, Rosy Posy?"

The old nickname warmed her, and she said, "Oh, I'm doing lovely, Dad."

"Studying for your N.E.W.T.'s going okay?"

Rose nodded. "If I do well enough, I can start my Healer residency before the end of the school year, because once I've taken the N.E.W.T.'s I don't really have to stay for the rest of the year."

Ron chuckled. "Leave school early, it's the best way to go."

"_Ron_," said Hermione severely, "do not you dare influence our children for anything less than a perfect education."

Ron chuckled again, and Rose laughed with him.

Hugo bounded down, met and greeted his father with affection, and ate all of the scrambled eggs in one fell swoop.

"What are we doing today?" asked Rose.

"We can either go and visit number 3, Hallow's Lane, or we can stay at home," said Hermione, "but tomorrow is the Burrow, either way. Which would you prefer?"

Rose shrugged.

"Rosy Posy, without an opinion? That's new," commented Ron. "I vote for Hallows Lane- I have to give Harry my report on last night's raid anyway-"

"I never understood how boys could go to sleep at three in the morning and still be up by eight," said Hermione, "and raring to go, at that."

"Boys are always warm," observed Rose dispassionately, "so they must have more energy to burn."

Ron raised one eyebrow. "I hope you're not speaking from too much personal experience."

"You know perfectly well that I date, Dad, and it's probably not going to stop until I get married."

"You can date after you get married," said Ron.

"Ha, so funny I forgot to laugh."

"So stupid you don't know how."

These sorts of remarks always made Hugo laugh and Hermione roll her eyes, but the exchange was a constant one between Ron and Rose, and the remarks didn't hurt. They were a rough-around-the-edges way of saying "I love you."

They were on the verge of deciding to go to number 3, Hallow's Lane, when there was a sudden sharp rap at the door. Rose went to answer it.

It was him.

"Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy, you could probably knock me over with a shovel right now, I am that surprised."

He smiled. He was wearing- jeans? And a black leather jacket? Curiously informal for Scorpius, who usually wore his khaki or black dress pants, a sweater of some shade of green, and a Slytherin tie. But then Rose remembered that she had only seen Scorpius outside of school a few times, and most of those times had involved his parents in the general vicinity.

"Are you going to let me in?" he asked in that soft voice that left so many girls feeling surprised and confused, not excluding Rose.

"Um, of course. Come in."

She opened the door wider for him, and he stepped over the threshold, looking around. She closed the door.

"Who was it, Rosy Posy?" called Ron from the kitchen.

Rose blushed furiously at Scorpius's momentary flicker of amusement, then replied, "It's Scorpius."

She led him into the kitchen. He stood at the doorway. Hugo nodded to him, but his eyes were a little wary. Hermione raised her eyebrows, and Ron- how wonderful Dad was at hiding his feelings, thought Rose sarcastically- let his mouth fall open a little in surprise.

But Hermione saved the day by saying briskly, "Have you had breakfast, Scorpius? I'm no cook, but scrambled eggs aren't hard- I can whip some more up if you're hungry."

"Um-" Scorpius suddenly coughed and cleared his throat, but not before Rose heard his voice crack a little bit. "No, I haven't had breakfast. I woke up at dawn."

"At dawn? Whatever for?" said Ron curiously.

"Dad," said Rose pointedly.

"I have to walk to the Muggle village before I can Apparate," said Scorpius. "My parents have a spell set up to warn them if I Apparate on the property, but once I get to the village I can Apparate. The village is three hours away."

"The closest village? Three hours?" said Ron.

Scorpius nodded, a faint smile lingering on his face. "Dad's not terribly fond of Muggles yet." To his credit, thought Rose with relief, he did not look at Hermione.

"Was he ever?" said Ron with a snort.

"_Dad_," said Rose again, at the same time that Hermione said, "_Ron_."

"I'm not offended," said Scorpius. "Really." He smiled.

"Scorpius is a brick," announced Hugo, "getting up at dawn to walk three hours to see Rose."

Rose felt her face burn. "Oh, I'm sure it wasn't just to see me," she said, feeling abruptly confused and yet hopeful.

"It sort of was," said Scorpius. "I... owe Rose some time spent. My parents knew I was going out today. They didn't know how early." He glanced at Rose and smiled, and cautiously, Rose smiled back.

"Well, will you be going out, then?" said Hermione briskly. "Walk around the village, see the sights, that sort of thing?"

"I thought I would let Rose dictate," said Scorpius.

"Well, then, Rose, you can discuss what you want to do with Scorpius," said Hermione. "Hugo, if you want to head over to number three, Hallow's Lane, today, you might want to grab anything you need so I can Side-Along Apparate you there. Ron, I wanted you to look at something in the garden..."

"Confound it, woman, your garden always needs me," groaned Ron, but he got up and left. Hermione, after sliding a plate of eggs in front of Scorpius, said, "Rose, could you make him some coffee? You always do a much better job than me," and left the kitchen as well. Rose realized with a pang that her mother had just contrived to leave her alone with Scorpius, and she could not have done it with more composure than if she had been the Minister of Magic.

"What did you want to do?" Rose asked Scorpius, suddenly feeling shy. "I mean, did you have anything in mind?"

"Well, I mostly just wanted to see your childhood," said Scorpius. "I showed you my childhood, a few years ago. We haven't been as close, since."

"Because you started dating Brianne Toberley." Rose wasn't quite ready to forgive him yet.

Scorpius winced. "That's something I regret," he said softly. "But you have things you regret too, Rose- don't we all?"

Rose closed her eyes and sighed, as she stirred the coffee. "Yes," she said finally. "And I forgive you, but only on the basis that you could have done much, much worse than date Brianne Toberley."

"My father would never have forgiven me if I had brought a Hufflepuff to the house," said Scorpius with a straight face.

In spite of herself, Rose giggled. Today would be a fun day, she thought, revisiting the scenes of her life with Scorpius. "Okay," she said. "Finish your breakfast. We can start here, because Mum and Dad will probably be outside for a while, and Hugo won't be around at all. Let me go get my things for when we leave."

She went up to her room and looked critically at herself; the jeans were good, as was the tee shirt, a heathery gray. She rummaged through her closet, where she kept scarves and hats and things that were fashionable, which she didn't wear to school, and found an olive-green scarf. Scorpius liked green. She tied it in a loose knot around her neck, then pulled it off and threw it on the bed to get later. She brushed her hair with her fingers absent-mindedly as she selected her brown leather boots from a store of shoes that she rarely wore, and put on her socks in preparation. As ready as she could be, she went back downstairs.

Scorpius had taken off his leather jacket; underneath it he wore a plain black T-shirt, one that Rose could tell without asking and Scorpius didn't need to say was expensive for its plainness and the way it fitted him properly, neither too small nor too large. He had something on his wrist- Rose peered at it and saw the knotted bracelet that Norah had made him, in green and grey. She had made one for each of them; red and gold for Albus, blue and brown for Rose, yellow and black for herself.

"Let me hang up your jacket," she offered, "and you take off your shoes. Mum doesn't like shoes in the house."

He took off his shoes- normal, ankle-cut black Chuck Taylors- and handed them to her with the leather jacket. Rose laid the shoes by the front door and hung the jacket next to her olive-green one on the coathook.

When she returned, he was looking around the kitchen. "Tell me about this room," he said.

"It's pink, and nobody knows why," said Rose. "We all complain about it every day, but none of us ever try to change the color."

He laughed.

"It's too small for any more than four people, frankly," said Rose, trying to think of things to say, "and there's an herb garden on the window." She trailed off.

"Tell me your favorite memory of this room," said Scorpius.

Rose thought for a moment, then said, "Watching snow fall into the backyard at Christmastime. We have a really steep roof, so the snow usually just slides right off, and it looks like a blizzard out of that little window over the sink. If it snows enough, it piles right up to the roof there and we can sled from the top of the roof to the end of the yard."

When they were done with breakfast, they went into every room in the house. Scorpius asked questions and Rose saw her house in a new light, as Scorpius listened to her answers. It was no Malfoy Manor, but then it was nothing she ever needed to be ashamed of, either.

They went upstairs, and almost as soon as they were at the top of the staircase, a silver wisp bounded past them and formed a Jack Russell terrier at the top of the stairs. Its mouth opened and Ron's voice issued therefrom. "I don't need to tell either of you what happens if you're in Rose's room with the door shut, do I? No? Good." The Jack Russell terrier faded to nothing.

Rose, blushing, showed Scorpius into her parent's room, trimmed in familiar white and brown, but with several violent orange posters on one of the walls. "Go Cannons," said Scorpius unenthusiastically.

"You're a Keeper, you should probably care about Quidditch," said Rose.

Scorpius snorted. "I became a Keeper so that Bruna Goyle would leave me alone. I only kept it up these last two years because I wanted to finish the job properly."

She showed him Hugo's room, pale blue but also with the violent orange posters, then went to the little room at the end of the hall, where she lived.

She was aware that it was a tiny room, but she wasn't ashamed of it. Everything was navy blue and dark purple, colors she had chosen herself. The desk was a rolltop one, from the nineteen-forties, and the chair in front of it was a wicker rocking chair. The bed was wide and comfortable, and the little vanity table on the other side of the bed had only her hairbrush on it.

"This is your little piece of heaven," said Scorpius. "Everything about it says Rose."

Rose grinned. "Flattery will not avail you, sir."

He laughed, then went to the window. "You hate Herbology, and yet you grow roses in your window boxes."

"They're _roses_," said Rose. "My namesake, and they aren't that hard to grow." She joined him at the window and opened it, examining the roses. "They've barely put out buds, how did you know they were roses?"

"The colors," said Scorpius. "Red, pink, white, yellow. Roses."

"I would like orange roses," said Rose, "if they didn't clash with my hair. Pink ones, too. My favorite are- guess," she told him.

"Red," he said promptly.

"I guess every girl's favorite rose is red," said Rose, "but I honestly prefer white."

"I like the red ones," said Scorpius.

Rose closed the window, then sat on her bed and pulled on her boots and tied her scarf.

"Where to, captain?" said Scorpius whimsically.

"The Muggle primary school," said Rose.

They went downstairs and put on their jackets. It was cool, for an April morning, although it would be warmer later. Rose reached into her mother's handbag and withdrew six pounds of Muggle money from it, then slipped it into her pocket. She could pay her mother back later.

They walked down Rabbitsdon Lane and reached the main road; Rose glanced around for cars, then took Scorpius's arm. "Apparition," she explained to him. "Follow me."

He nodded, and they vanished with twin pops.

They reappeared, stumbling, before the Muggle primary school where Rose had spent six years. Scorpius examined it critically, pronounced it depressing, and asked her what it was like. She showed him the playgrounds, described the nasty food and the cruel, boring teachers, explained recess, jump rope, and hopscotch to him. They played a game of hopscotch, but as they finished, Scorpius said, "I guess not everybody can make castles of cards out of Exploding Snap packs."

Rose punched him lightly in the shoulder. "I would take you to the secondary school, but Hugo and I went to Hogwarts before any of us were old enough to go. And they would probably think we were going to school and try to make us go to school."

They walked down the road and she showed him the lane that led to the main part of Godric's Hollow, and they took that lane to Godric's Hollow itself. Scorpius had been to number 3, Hallow's Lane, before, but he didn't suggest they visit Albus and neither did Rose. Rose showed him the churchyard where Lily and James Potter were buried, and then the row of graves at the end where stones had been put up to Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, and Fred Weasley. They looked at the memorial in the middle of the village, then had lunch at a cafe nearby. After that she took him to the ruined cottage.

They stood and looked at the cottage, and then Scorpius whispered, "Can we go inside?"

"Yes, technically," said Rose, "but nobody ever has since Hagrid went and got Harry out from the wreckage, and I don't want to be the first one."

They stood there in silence for a moment, and then Scorpius reached out and took Rose's hand, holding it loosely, but firmly, in a way that suggested friendship more than love, but that Rose knew was a mixture of the two. How proportioned the two parts were, she had no idea.

They walked back through Godric's Hollow, back through the lane to the small hamlet near Godric's Hollow, but instead of turning back to Rose's house, she led Scorpius in a different direction.

"Where are we going?" asked Scorpius.

"My castle," answered Rose.

She turned right as they began to reach the center of the village, and headed from the path into the woods. Scorpius still held her hand as they wandered through the hazy green light of the trees. She took off her jacket, and Scorpius took off his and held both of them, but he reached out again and took her hand again.

Rose stopped at the top of a hill and looked up at the oak tree that stood there, then released Scorpius's hand and began to climb. "Leave the coats," she called down after him.

He left the coats at the bottom of the tree and began to follow her up the tree. Rose reached the ancient treehouse and turned to help Scorpius into it. He grasped her hand and arm and pulled himself in with some effort.

"Your castle?" he said, looking around.

"My castle." She reached up and placed her hands on the ceiling of the treehouse. "It gets smaller and smaller every time I come back. None of the Muggle kids has ever found it. When I was eleven, I came home over the summer and found it, just waiting here, and I placed a Disillusionment Charm on it and ran like hell to get home. The Ministry never sent a letter. Nobody ever knew it was me. But when I came back, I noticed that the Ministry had sort of unofficially arranged so that nobody could find the treehouse except for the person who had cast the Disillusionment Charm. They probably wanted to try and catch me in a trap, but I've never been caught yet."

Scorpius was watching her, and it distracted Rose to no end, with those grey eyes on her, gentle and sharp, cool and warm, loving and fierce. She was talking, but she could feel her words faltering as she spoke, and for a moment she looked out the window, over the top of the hill and the other trees that were everywhere.

"I'm queen here, in my castle," she told him finally. "Nobody can tell me what to do. I can be alone here, whenever I want to be."

"And yet you brought me," said Scorpius.

"You're special," said Rose simply.

They sat in silence for a moment, and then Scorpius said, "I know you better now, Rose. The way you know me."

"You've always been an enigma to me," said Rose, shaking her head. "And I always felt that you could see through me like glass." But she smiled at him.

He reached forwards and took her hands, just looking at them, and Rose could feel a sort of lovely burning in his gaze. "You've always been slender, Rose," he said. "A rose on a stem. Willowy. Graceful."

"You always looked like you needed to be fed though you came from the finest kitchens in England," retorted Rose, but her tone was milder than it would otherwise have been.

He looked down at the ground, still holding her hands, then released them and folded his in his lap. "I have been cruel to you, Rose Weasley. Cruel and mean-spirited, because I was jealous."

"You've been kind in comparison with me," said Rose. "I've been really awful- what with Caden, and Phil, and oh, the Yule Ball-"

He shook his head, and their eyes met. Rose trembled. What would happen- what could happen- anything, at the moment, just to reach the top of this glass hill they had been climbing.

Slowly, ever so slowly, his hand reached forward and touched her face, softly, just brushing her cheek. His hand was warm, and struck the balance between soft and rough as it cradled her face. This might have been the greatest moment in her life so far, and she felt paralyzed, not able to move or think or breathe, because it was Scorpius, and he was perfect and everything was so _right_- but she would inevitably make a mistake, of course she would.

"Scorpius," she said quietly, "I- I'm afraid."

"Not of me," he said.

"No, never of you," said Rose. "I don't want to hurt you. I hurt everyone in the end."

Scorpius shook his head. "You've already hurt me," he said, "so I'll get by if it happens again, which I don't think it will. But the pain of not having you in my life is worse than you being cruel to me."

Rose was stunned into silence, but before she could say anything, Scorpius had leaned forward and kissed her, and it was like the sun had broken over the horizon into thousands of tiny fragments, splintering again and again as they fell, so that all of the shattered sunlight landed in her heart and mind and filled her whole being with a lightness she hadn't ever felt with Caden.

His eyes were closed, and he breathed a little shallowly, as though someone had knocked him to the ground and winded him. Rose closed her eyes, too, as she tried to decide what to do next, but then Scorpius said hoarsely, "You didn't mind that, did you?"

"Not in the slightest," whispered Rose, "and in fact- I think we should do it again, as we both seemed to enjoy-" She didn't finish that sentence, because Scorpius had kissed her again, and she lost whatever train of thought had been running anyway and decided that she would kiss him back, because it was the best thing by far that had happened to her all year, or all her life- she wasn't really sure which, but either way it was wonderful. She wasn't sure of precisely what she was doing, but she ended up, when she found that she could reassess the situation, with her arms around Scorpius's neck, and he had one hand in her hair and one on the small of her back, and he was very warm and it sent a sort of thrilling sensation all over her.

She started to laugh, because she was incredibly happy about everything, especially Scorpius, but the laughter turned into tears as she remembered that she did not deserve him above half, a sentiment with which his parents probably agreed. Scorpius was confused, and he might have been a little hurt by her tears, but she wiped her eyes and explained her thoughts, and he proceeded to assure her most thoroughly that she was in fact exactly what he deserved, and in fact that she was far more than he deserved- a sentiment with which her parents probably agreed.

"I've sort of loved you since you defended me to Professor Mycroft in first year," said Scorpius shyly to her. They sat at the edge of the treehouse, legs dangling off the edge, his arm around her shoulders and hers around his waist. "That, and since you defended me to Bruna Goyle as well."

"I have no idea when I first knew I loved you," Rose told him, moving closer. "But I think it was probably at the Yule Ball, when you walked in with Norah on your 'just friends' date and I appreciated you because you had tons of girls asking you to go and you elected to take Norah because nobody asked her, when Albus ought to have."

"Albus was obsessed with Genevieve Selwyn at the time, if you'll remember correctly," said Scorpius. "I wonder when he and Norah will figure each other out."

"Probably not until they don't see each other every day and decide that they miss each other too much not to be together," said Rose, yawning.

"You're tired," said Scorpius at once. "We should probably go back to your parents house, anyway- it's getting to be late, and the sun will be down in an hour."

They climbed down from the tree, and dusted off their jackets and put them on. Scorpius reached for Rose's hand again, but she slid her arm around his waist, and he made no objections to it as he put his arm around her shoulders once more. They cut through the trees, but in the meandering sort of manner in which they had arrived at the trees. When they emerged into the village, the sun was setting. Rose bought them ice cream at the Muggle shop and they ate it on the way home. "Nothing on Florean Fortescue's," said Scorpius.

"No, but there's no Muggle ice cream shop alive that could hope to match Florean Fortescue's," said Rose with a laugh.

"True story, Rose," said Scorpius. "I sort of want to call you Rose all the time- my Rose. You have such a pretty name, my Rose, and I was cursed by such an abominable one."

"It's true that you can't get much of a nickname out of it," said Rose, feeling herself blush every time Scorpius said "my Rose" in that gentle, soft way he had. "Scorpy, for instance, is a dreadful nickname."

"Coming from you, it's not so bad," said Scorpius.

"That doesn't work," Rose warned him. "I can never think of you as anything other than Scorpius, although sometimes-" She stopped abruptly. "Oh, just look at the sunset, isn't it lovely?"

"Nice try, my Rose, but it will not do. Finish that first sentence, if you please."

"It sounds condescending, what I call you in my mind," said Rose anxiously.

"I insist you tell me," said Scorpius, and he proceeded to convince her to do so very insistently. The ice cream was lost in the process and was quite forgotten about.

"Oh, stop." Rose smiled and pushed her hair out of her face. "I'll tell you. I call you 'my dear boy.' I'm sorry, it sounds so stuck-up and condescending and rude-"

"Actually, it sounds delightful," said Scorpius, "and I insist you use that term of endearment henceforth. But not in public. And especially not in front of Hale."

"Matthias is a wonder and a vexation to me, I can assure you," said Rose wryly. "But you are the only dear boy I have."

"Good," said Scorpius, without qualm, "because I was extremely jealous of him during our third and fourth year."

"Jealous? We weren't dating. In fact, I was preparing him to ask Frankie Longbottom to the Yule Ball. We were intellectual companions, and having thoroughly plumbed the depths of each others minds, grew bored with each other and moved on."

"I hope you won't grow bored of me that quickly."

"I can assure you I won't."

They turned onto Rabbitsdon Lane and strolled down it, but as they approached the house, Scorpius removed his arm from her shoulders and took her hand instead. Rose didn't object; she wasn't sure that she wanted her father to come running out of the house with his wand aloft, ready to jinx Scorpius as soon as look at him.

They went in, to find Ron, Hermione, and Hugo all in the living room; Ron sat by the window, with a pretended innocence on his face, and Hermione was studiously watching TV, although Rose knew that her mother did not find the Muggle world as interesting as she did when she was more Muggleborn than fully-developed witch. Only Hugo stared at them openly, gawking.

"Hello, Rose, hello, Scorpius," said Ron. His wand was in his hand, and it kept twitching. "How was your adventure? Is the town of Dawlish to your satisfaction?"

"Yes, sir," said Scorpius extremely politely, as he sat down on the couch on Rose's right. Ron was on her left. "We had a lovely time and Rose showed me all the sights. It was very educational."

"Are you dating?" Hugo burst out, as though he couldn't hold it in any longer.

"Hugo, that was rude," said Hermione reprovingly.

"But on that note, are you?" said Ron.

"I suppose you could say we are," said Scorpius, still as politely as he could. "That's partly why I came today, so I could make your acquaintance and Mrs. Weasley's, sir, before I settled it with Rose."

"Can I ask you a few questions?" said Ron, his tone still aggressive, though milder than it had been moments before.

"I will submit to whatever examinations you see fit, sir," said Scorpius, and Rose kicked him and added, "He will submit to whatever examinations I allow you to administer, Dad, and that's all there is to say on the matter."

Ron ignored Rose. "Are you going to treat my daughter right, or are you going to give her problems like the last little twerp she dated?"

"I promise you that I will always treat Rose with due decorum and propriety, and if it will help my record, I had my share of revenge on the last little twerp, as you call him, for abusing the emotional sensibility of my friend Rose," said Scorpius solemnly.

Rose looked at him, startled. "You did?"

"Don't you remember when Caden came into class with a lovely set of boils on his face, about a week after the fact?"

"Yeah, but I thought he was just having a breakout."

"No, not really," said Scorpius innocently. "And they weren't just on his face- I made sure he wouldn't be able to sit down without wincing for a week."

Hugo and Hermione were laughing, and even Ron's face was twitching with humor, although he still looked ferocious.

"I trust that concludes his examinations," Rose said to her father.

"He's on probation," said Ron, in a mollified voice.

"Oh, goody," said Scorpius. "What does that entail?"

"Behaving like a gentleman until you have my full approval, which may not happen until you announce any sort of engagement or marriage plans-"

"_Dad_!"

"-or until termination of your relationship, at the end of which time you will receive a performance review and a notification of whether I am going to come after you as an Auror and beat the daylights out of you or whether you will be tacitly ignored for the rest of your natural life."

"They both sound like the sort of punishment that if I should ever mistreat Rose I would know that I had endeavored to deserve said punishment," said Scorpius.

"Keep that in mind when you're snogging."

"How about," said Hermione hurriedly, "we have dinner. It's leftover spaghetti, but it's not too bad."

"Excellent idea," said Rose. "Scorpius, let's help Mum with dinner-"

"You may go help your mother," said Ron. "I would like to talk to Scorpius, and I promise you it will be friendlier than you think."

"Be prepared to do a Shield Charm," said Hermione, standing and beckoning Rose into the kitchen.

They started to pull things from the refrigerator, and Hermione heated them up with a wave of her wand. Rose filled glasses with water and her mother enchanted them to float out to the table.

"Tell me about him," said her mother, "because I can tell you're trying to eavesdrop on them and I was kidding about the Shield Charm."

Rose jumped. She had been trying to eavesdrop. "He's... Scorpius," she said finally. "I know him inside and out, mostly. I get angry at him and I forgive him for it. He frustrates me to no end and I love him. I make him mad on purpose, and he forgives me for it. We've been intellectual equals for almost seven years and best platonic friends for almost all of it."

"It sounds, in a lot of ways, like your father and I," said Hermione, cutting celery into the salad with chopping motions and her wand. "Both of us friends with Harry for seven years, always fighting with one another. Him because he sought my approval constantly and felt that I never praised him for it, and me because I was angry when he did things that I thought were irrational but were really just _Ron_." She chuckled. "At least you didn't figure it out in the middle of when you were supposed to be fighting to the death with Voldemort. It's probably much sweeter for you."

"I wouldn't know," said Rose simply.

"There was never anyone but your father for me," said Hermione, "despite what the boys will say about Victor Krum. He may or may not have kissed me, but that is a secret that will go with me to my grave. And anyway, your father does a much better job. You had that other boy, though."

"Caden." It gave her no pain to say his name now, or to think of him. Scorpius had cast a rosy hue on everything- funny, thought Rose, that she should have thought of the word _rosy_. "He was a jerk, in the end. And Scorpius had a girlfriend, too."

"Your own Lavender Brown," said Hermione, nodding. "Now, as I understand it, your cousin James will probably have Lavender Brown as a mother-in-law shortly, and therefore I ought not to censure her, but I still cannot bring myself to like her."

"Scorpius's girlfriend was nice," said Rose.

"That makes it worse," said Hermione. "It's dreadful to think of the girl as an awful person when she's nice. Then you just feel mean."

Rose nodded. Hermione hugged her. "I'm glad it's all figured out," she told Rose. "I've been hearing the name 'Scorpius' since you first wrote home six and a half years ago, and I thought it was best to be prepared for this day."

"We're not _engaged_," said Rose. "Not really. I won't let us be _engaged_ for two and a half years, at least."

"I didn't marry your father until he had an established job as an Auror," said Hermione. "He helped George run the joke shop for a while, but I made it clear that that would not be happening for long. Does Scorpius have a career in mind?"

"He wants to be Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, someday," said Rose. "He loves to teach, and he's very good with children."

"If only you realized how that sounds, you would say you were _engaged_ yourself," said Hermione briskly.

After dinner, Scorpius stood up to leave. Rose walked him outside, to the end of Rabbitsdon Lane, where he turned and kissed her fiercely.

"Don't go," said Rose frankly.

"I sort of have to," said Scorpius. "My parents are probably pissed enough at me that I left before they could interrogate me about where I was going. I'm probably grounded for the rest of Easter. Totally worth it." He grinned down at her, and Rose felt her heart melt a little bit.

"I'll see you Tuesday, my Rose," he said, holding her hand and bringing it up to his lips in an old-fashioned, gentlemanly way.

"Tuesday, dear boy," answered Rose.

And with a crack, he vanished.


End file.
